farm fresh eggs

as promised, i wanted to give a recap of our visit to springfield. so, here's the first segment, (day 1):

on our very first a.m. in springfield, we awoke to a wonderful breakfast consisting of "farm fresh eggs" grandpa schnapp, (wayne), had gotten from the next door neighbor. (the eggs were "martha stewart-worthy"...traditional white eggs along with eggs containing hues of beautiful greens & browns...i just HAD to take a picture of them.)

farm fresh eggs

in addition to the eggs, we enjoyed wayne's "breakfast potatoes" using potatoes from the garden, fresh fruit salad, some delicious maple muffins grandma schnapp, (debbie), made, as well as some bacon. it was a hearty country breakfast - and boy was it good. debbie had even made sure to have my favorite rice milk for me to drink. (so very thoughtful).

later that morning, we had a visit from jacob and lynn. (j's aunt and cousin). it was their first-time meeting ella and i believe she won over their hearts?!

jacob and ella

ella wanted to hold jacob's hand...so sweet.

aunt lynn & ella

(i love these next 3 shots of them interacting).

jacob

such a handsome, polite young man.

debbie and ella

i love this shot w/grandpa in the background

grandma, aunt lynn, jacob & ella

j and ella

thanks lynn & jacob for schooling me on the ever-so-lovely japanese beetles. i never got a picture...can you believe it!?

before heading to aunt martha's for dinner, we made a quick stop by this cute little church right down the road.

rock creek church

behind/next to the church is a cemetary where a lot of j's ancestors are. i'd never seen "family markers" as big as these

rock creek cemetery

j and wayne

quite cool/impressive. a lot of the headstones date back to the 1800's. such great family history.

and then making our way to martha's we saw this...

and this...

we then ended our first day with a visit to j's aunt martha and uncle roger's home. we enjoyed a feast of papa murphy's pizza with the "take and bake" philosophy, (which i'd never heard of and i think is SUCH a cool idea), and then we followed up with a "to-die-for" dessert that put inches on the hips just looking at it. aunt martha had invited ella's "great" grandma schnapp and aunt sue and uncle mike too. it was so nice to visit with all of them. (boy, ella sure did take a liking to uncle mike...she was content in his arms and when she wasn't in his arms she was scoping the room in search of him...it was really cute).

we packed the quilt that aunt martha, aunt sue and great-grandma schnapp made for ella before she was born. i wanted it with us so we could get a picture of them all together. (so special).

aunt sue, grandma jo schnapp, aunt martha and ella

and so ended the picture-perfect weather and sites for day 1 in springfield...

enjoy your monday...i have LOTS of creative ideas and craziness going on in my little head! i love that!

i have to mention too, debbie took care of making sure we had everything we needed for ella while we were there. she borrowed a highchair, pack n' play and a walker for ella to use and then she told us not to pack any clothes, diapers, wipes, baby lotion, or baby bath soap. she had all of that ready for us when we arrived. for the entire trip, ella didn't wear anything except little outfits that debbie bought for her! those extra little details certainly made the trip that much more enjoyable for everyone.